The Rise of American Editorial and Advertising Design: Part 1

Brother James and John Harper launched a magazine in New York in 1871. Their brothers Wesley and Fletcher joined the company in 1823 and 1825 respectively. The name of this publication was dubbed Harper and Brothers. By the 1850s this magazine had become the largest printing and publishing firm in the world. Fletcher Harper was assigned the role of senior editor and succeeded in shaping American graphic communication for half a century.

Innovative designs for books wasn’t a priority for most publishing firms in the 19th century. They were more bothered with large press runs and modest prices. You know, the “more for less” principle.  But during the 1840s Harper and Brothers launched a mammoth project that developed into being the finest achievement in graphic design ever to be reached in the young nation. Their new additions to the company, Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible, was printed with custom designed and made presses and contained just about 1 600 wood engravings that were illustrated by Joseph A. Adams.

Each component was hand-sewn and hand-bound in heavy paper covers printed in two colors. Whilst preparing for this monumental task, Joseph designed the electrotyping process. This involved the following:
  • The wood engraving was pressed into soft wax to form a mold
  • This mold was dusted with graphite to make it electroconductive
  • An electrodeposit of metal (usually copper) was made in the mold
  • The resulting thin shell was backed with lead
This harder printing surface enabled Harper and Brothers to publish 50 000 copies in installments.

Joseph A. Adams, page from Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible, 1846. 
In the first page of the Old and the New Testaments, the two‑column format with a 
central margin for annotation was disrupted by centering the first few verses.

A hardbound edition of this new publication, with hand-tooled gold gilding on morocco leather binding, was only sold after the series of installments was completed. This special edition’s format consisted of 2 columns of text, a central margin hosting annotations, two-columns-wide images, ornate Victorian frames, numerous spot illustrations dropped into the text and chapters that open with illuminated initials.

The new era of pictorial magazine was launched with firm’s publication of the 144-page Harper’s New Monthly Magazine hit the shelves in 1850. The publication started off with serialized English fiction and numerous woodcut illustrations that were specially created by the artist staff for each issue. Joining these monthly magazines was a weekly publication called Harper’s Weekly in 1857. This publication served as a newsmagazine and billed itself  as "a journal of civilization". Ten years later the women os society was attended to when Harper’s Bazaar joined the other magazines in the stands and since 1879 Harper’s Young People addressed the youth in society.


After A. H. Wald, cover for Harper’s Weekly,1864. Engraved after a sketch
 by a “visual journalist”in the field, this cover is a forerunner of 
newsmagazine coverage of current events. 
Thomas Nast, a legendary talented artist, was an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly. He started his career, at the age of 15 years, as a staff illustrator at Leslie’s Weekly and only earned $4 a week. At the age of 22 years he was hired by Fletcher Harper to make battlefield sketches during the Civil War. His work was so powerful that president Abraham Lincoln called him “The best recruiting sergeant”. Even General Ulysses S. Grant declared that Nast had done as much as anyone to bring the conflict to an end. Harper’s Weekly’s circulation was propelled from 100 000 to 300 000 copies per issue due to the public response to Nast’s works.

 Nast stayed on at Harper’s Weekly after the war. There, he drew his images in reverse for the craftsmen to cut. His deep social and political concerns led him to replace detail with symbols and labels for increasing communicative effectiveness. He was soon dubbed the father of political cartooning.

Nast took on the governmental corruption of the political boss William Marcy Tweed, who controlled New York politics from infamous Tammany Hall. Tweed claimed that voters couldn’t read, but “they could sure see the damn pictures.” The final blow of Nast’s relentless graphic attack was dealt on Election Day in the form of a double-page cartoon. The opposing party won the election.
President Theodore Roosevelt noticed the effectiveness of Nast’s artworks for the Republican Party and appointed Nast consul general to Ecuador. Six month after his arrival at this new job, Nast passed away due to yellow fever.

Thomas Nast, political cartoon from Harper’s Weekly, 1871.
This double‑page image was posted all over New York City on election day.
It portrays the "Tammany Tiger" loose in Rome Colosseum, devouring
liberty, while Tweed as the Roman emperor surrounded by his
elected officials presided over the slaughter.


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